GARDAI SUSPECT DRUG VIGILANTES OVER SHOOTING

ANTI-DRUG vigilantes are being blamed for the attempted murder of a
reformed addict who was shot three times in the back on a Dublin street.

Survivor Alan Byrne (26), was under armed Garda protection last night
as he recovered from his ordeal in St James's Hospital. A decision
will be made shortly by senior officers on whether he should be placed
permanently under the Government's witness security programme.

Mr Byrne is a key witness in two criminal trials later this year, when
12 men face charges connected to the killing of Aids victim and drug
addict Josie Dwyer in Dublin's south inner city in May, 1996.

Senior officers believe Mr Byrne was targeted by vigilantes, some of
whom have Provisional republican sympathies, as he walked to a bus
stop in the south inner city yesterday morning.

He is the second man connected to the Dwyer trials to have been
attacked in the past two years. Desmond Whelan, who had been charged
with Mr Dwyer's manslaughter, was stabbed to death close to his home
in Dolphin House flats complex in April, 1997. Gardai alleged he had
earlier attempted to intimidate one of the witnesses in the trials.

Republicans infiltrated a number of community anti-drugs groups in the
capital and were particularly active in cracking down on suspected
drug dealers and criminals in the late 1990s.

At least five shots were fired at Mr Byrne as he walked up Vauxhall
Avenue, a pedestrian linkway between his home at Rosary Avenue,
Maryland, and Cork Street at about 7.45am. It was his regular route to
a bus as he went to work in Walkinstown.

In the laneway he noticed a man, wearing a yellow hard hat and a
yellow flourescent jacket, pulling out a plastic trellis indicating
that roadworks were in progress. He later told detectives: ``After I
had walked by the man, I heard what sounded like a gunshot. I turned
around and then saw a flash.''

Although those shots missed, the bogus roadworker then fired three
further bullets which struck Mr Byrne in the lower back. The gunman
was described as 5 feet 2 inches to 5 feet 4 inches tall, of stocky
build and aged between 20 and 40.

Last night Mr Byrne was described as being in a poor condition in St
James' Hospital but his injuries were ``not life threatening''. One of
the bullets was thought to have damaged a lung.